Former British spy Christopher Steele, the man behind the drafting of the now-infamous “Trump dossier,” once confidently proclaimed that our president was so inextricably linked to Russian government figures that Vladimir Putin himself could drop a dime on Donald J. Trump anytime he wanted.

Steele also claimed that Trump aides were part of some vast conspiracy with Moscow to “steal the election” from Hillary Clinton, someone who Putin reportedly despised so much he’d do anything to see her lose.

But now, as Steele is forced to defend himself against charges of slander and libel for things he wrote in the dossier — that was subsequently published by Buzzfeed — he doesn’t appear to be quite so confident in his earlier claims.

As in, he doesn’t sound like a man who continues to believe what he wrote a year ago.

As reported by The Washington Times, once upon a time Steele “matter-of-factly” stated in the dossier that there was collusion between Team Trump and Team Moscow. But some months later in court, he now claims that such collusion was only “possible.”

Steele’s unsubstantiated garbage was further spread by the Democrat-aligned opposition research firm that hired Steele — Fusion GPS. Also, the Times noted, Steele once boasted to Mother Jones magazine he was the one who started Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation by convincing the FBI last summer that his dossier was real.

In any event, now that Steele has to defend his allegations in court, “his confidence level has shifted down several notches,” the Times noted.

As The National Sentinel reported in April, Steele was upset when Buzzfeed published the dossier in January, probably because he knew then it was all BS. Though the so-called “mainstream” media ignored it, Steele also seemed at the time to repudiate the dossier when he acknowledged in court filings that at least some of the allegations contained in the document were unverified.

In his dossier, Steele claimed without a hint of reservation that an “extensive conspiracy between Trump’s campaign team and the Kremlin” existed. He wrote that as a hotel builder and entrepreneur, Trump was involved in an eight-year partnership with Russian intelligence that dated back long before his presidential campaign, the Times noted.

During that alleged relationship, both sides traded information.

One of Steele’s memos even claimed that the Kremlin had compiled so much financial and personal information about Trump and his businesses that the Kremlin could blackmail him at any time (a claim that actually makes more sensewhen applied to Hillary Clinton).

The Times noted further:

He wrote that Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s former campaign manager, and a campaign volunteer, Carter Page, in tandem orchestrated the campaign with Moscow to meddle in the race. He also maintained that Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump’s attorney, traveled to Prague in August 2016 to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s personal staff and orchestrate a cover-up of the campaign’s hacking conspiracy.

All of those charges have been denied, and none has been confirmed publicly by a press leak or congressional inquiry.

Now that he’s in court, Steele is changing his tune — a lot.

In one response, Steele described the intelligence he gathered as “limited.” Regarding the charge of collusion between Team Trump and Russia, he now claims that there is only a “possible connection.”

This dossier — bought and paid for by Clinton and a Clinton-aligned firm — was never real, and we’re now seeing that proven as Steele attempts to defend the indefensible.